Effects of the Pandemic on New Books: A Mild Lament by Author Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

My Select­ed Short Sto­ries was released by the Uni­ver­si­ty of San­to Tomas Pub­lish­ing House and by PALH in July-August, and the book has had a low-key exis­tence since, thanks to the pan­dem­ic. The book col­lects 39 of my best short sto­ries, many of which are used by edu­ca­tors in their class­rooms. Clas­sics such as “Woman With Horns”, “Flip Goth­ic”, “Romeo:, and more are part of this col­lec­tion. All the sto­ries in this book have been pre­vi­ous­ly pub­lished, some have been anthol­o­gized sev­er­al times.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, there have been no book launch­es to pro­mote my Select­ed Short Sto­ries, as most book­stores are closed and many peo­ple are being cau­tious about min­gling with others.

Even the book dis­tri­b­u­tion in the Philip­pines (via Laza­da and Shopee) has suf­fered because when there are pan­dem­ic-lock­downs, peo­ple can’t go to their offices (to process book orders).

I did par­tic­i­pate in sev­er­al Zoom events (US Philip­pine Embassy, CTU in Cebu, and oth­ers), but there has­n’t been an event that focused on Select­ed Short Stories.

I am there­fore delight­ed to announce that I have some forth­com­ing events that high­light this new col­lec­tion of mine.

The Los Ange­les Pub­lic Library  is host­ing A Con­ver­sa­tion with Author Cecil­ia Brainard: Select­ed Short Sto­ries, mod­er­at­ed by writer, actor, Bud­dhist pas­tor Noel Alu­mit. This pro­gram will be Live on  the YouTube and Face­book pages of the Los Ange­les Pub­lic Library, on Cal­i­for­nia time, Oct. 26, 2021, 6 pm.(this is Philip­pine time: Oct. 27, 9 am). This is part of the #Fil­ipinoAmer­i­can­His­to­ry­Month Celebrations.

Stream­ing live @lapubliclibrary YouTube (https://youtu.be/Hw46hvf9MF8)

& Face­book page (https://www.facebook.com/lapubliclibrary/)

https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/conversation-author-cecilia-brainard-selected-short-stories

The Uni­ver­si­ty of San­to Tomas Cen­ter for Cre­ative Writ­ing and Lit­er­ary Stud­ies has invit­ed me to give a talk as part of the Inter­na­tion­al Authors Series, to air in Novem­ber. I will keep you post­ed. Pro­fes­sors Jack Wigley and Ralph Semi­no-Galan have sent me some very inter­est­ing ques­tions about my sto­ries and about the cre­ative process.

 I should men­tion that I’m a pan­elist in the  Lit­er­a­ture Edu­ca­tors Asso­ciate of the Philip­pines (LEAP) Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Lit­er­a­ture Edu­ca­tion, sched­uled on Oct. 28–30, 2021.  My talk will be on  — Philip­pine time — Oct. 28, 11:30 a.m., and the Open Forum is on Oct. 29, 9 am. I will be talk­ing about “Read­ing and Writ­ing Lit­er­a­ture as a Cop­ing Strategy.”

After these, I’ll focus on the pro­duc­tion work of the anthol­o­gy Grow­ing Up Fil­ipino Book 3 that I’m edit­ing and col­lect­ing. Some fine writ­ers and sto­ries in there!

There’s Christ­mas too and my new-found love, ART, to play with.

And speak­ing of Christ­mas, books make great gifts!  In the Philip­pines, my books: When the Rain­bow God­dess Wept, Mag­dale­na, The News­pa­per Wid­ow, and Select­ed Short Sto­ries by Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard can be ordered from Laza­da and Shopee.

In the US, these titles and most of my oth­er titles can be eas­i­ly found in Ama­zon. I believe Barnes and Noble also car­ries these titles. And check out East­wind Books in Berkeley.

This is all for now. Stay tuned, AND STAY SAFE!  ~ Cecil­ia  (ceciliabrainard.com)

 Tags: #FAHMS2021 #FAHM #philip­pine­books #fil­am­books #fil­ipinoau­thors #fil­ipino­books #cebu­books